The present invention relates to a new and distinct interspecific hybrid variety of Hippeastrum, botanically known as Hippeastrum Herb., syn. Amaryllis, of the Amaryllidaceae family, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘OPAL STAR’.
The Hippeastrum genus is native to tropical and subtropical regions of South America and the Caribbean, and includes more than 80 different species and several hundred hybrids.
The new Hippeastrum ‘OPAL STAR’ is a product of a controlled breeding program conducted by the inventors, Dorit Sandler-Ziv, Corneliu Fintea, Aurel Ion, Avner Cohen, Marina Baizerman and Ahuva Daous, in Bet-Dagan, Israel. The objective of the breeding program was to develop a new Hippeastrum variety with excellent ornamental characteristics, adapted to bulb production under Israeli climatic conditions and suitable for both cut flower and pot production worldwide.
The new Hippeastrum ‘OPAL STAR’ originated from a cross made by the inventors in 2000 in Bet-Dagan, Israel. The female or seed parent is the unpatented, wild-type Hippeastrum papillio designated WT30. The male or pollen parent is the unpatented, interspecific Hippeastrum hybrid designated 97/4 (H. vittatum ‘WHITE’×wild-type H. cybister designated WT40). The new Hippeastrum ‘OPAL STAR’ was selected by the inventors as a single flowering plant from the progeny of the stated cross in a controlled environment in 2003 in Bet-Dagan, Israel.
Asexual propagation of the new Hippeastrum ‘OPAL STAR’ using the “twin-scaling” method (division of the mother bulb into about 12 vertical segments which are subsequently subdivided into 5 to 6 twin-scale units was first performed in September, 2004, in Bet-Dagan, Israel. The twin-scale units are dipped for 15 minutes in 0.2% BENLATE and 0.5% MARPAN to prevent fungal infection, then the segments are air dried for 3 to 4 hours and placed in moist Vermiculite no. 2 (8% to 10% moisture) and incubated at 22° C. to 24° C. for 3 to 4 months. The resulting bulblets are planted in coco-peat and Tuff 0.8 (80:20%) and grown for 2 years until they flower for the first time. Of the twin scales first propagated in September, 2004, the resulting bulbs first flowered in the winter of 2007, and demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new variety, is firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual propagation. The new variety propagates true-to-type.